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Audit Reports

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Sep
21
2016
Report Number:
FT-AR-16-009
Report Type:
Audit Reports
Category: Finance

Attestation Report - Independent Report on Employee Benefits, Withholdings, Contributions, and Supplemental Semiannual Headcount Reporting Submitted to the Office of Personnel Management

Background:

At the request of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Office of Inspector General, we performed procedures agreed upon by the chief financial officer and inspector general of the OPM. This attestation engagement is an annual requirement of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.

Our objectives were to help the OPM assess the reasonableness of U.S. Postal Service employee benefit withholdings, enrollment information, and Postal Service benefit contributions, and to confirm the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) (managed by the OPM), accounting codes, and payroll data match OPM records.

What the OIG Found:

We verified the employee withholdings, Postal Service contributions, and enrollment information reported and transferred to the OPM for health and retirement benefits. However, we identified issues related to life insurance elections, re-employed annuitant reporting, basic life insurance withholdings, and CFC information. Specifically:

  • For one of 10 employees reviewed, we could not verify a waiver of basic life insurance because the Life Insurance Election Form was not present in the employee’s electronic Official Personnel Folder.
  • The number of re-employed annuitants reported in the Supplemental Semiannual Headcount Report for September 2015 and March 2016 was incorrect. The Postal Service reported 21 re-employed annuitants for September 2015 and March 2016. However, the Postal Service employed only 19 and 15 re-employed annuitants in September 2015 and March 2016, respectively.
  • The Postal Service incorrectly reported basic life insurance withholdings on Standard Form 2812, Report of Withholdings and Contributions for Health Benefits, Life Insurance, and Retirement, for all three pay periods reviewed.
  • Thirteen of 151 CFC codes in the Postal Service payroll system were not present in the OPM records.
  • CFC codes in the Postal Service’s payroll system for 520 of 54,033 employees did not match the OPM campaign codes associated with the employee’s work location.

As a result of our engagement, the Postal Service took corrective action on three of the five issues identified in this report: re-employed annuitants, basic life insurance withholdings, and CFC deductions.

We were not engaged in, and did not perform, an audit, the objective of which would have been the expression of an opinion on the withholdings and contributions. Accordingly, we do not express such an opinion.

What the OIG Recommended:

This report is provided for information only, and we offered no recommendations. Accordingly, no management action is required.